


Feel No Evil

by AmateurScribes



Series: Bad Things Happen (to Grif) Bingo [8]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Forced Servitude, Forced to Kneel, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, Mental Link, Punishment, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Sacrifice, Slight Survivors Guilt, Take me instead, in a way but nothing too dramatic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 03:03:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16109438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmateurScribes/pseuds/AmateurScribes
Summary: Grif's running to stop the others from causing a paradox when he falls into the hands of the Cosmic Powers.Literally.The Cosmic Powers aren't happy with the Reds and Blues attempt at changing the past.





	Feel No Evil

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how I feel about this one, but I was jostling around way too many ideas for it so I just went with the one that came back to me the most. So many people asked for this prompt, so I might as well get it out of my system ya know? Well, hope you guys enjoy this one nonetheless!

He's running through the hallways trying to reach those idiots before they cause a fucking _paradox_ when the floor literally disappears beneath him.

One second his feet are thudding and pounding against the floor, his armored boots clanging against the metal corridor. He's out of breath and feeling lightheaded, Grif would much rather stop to take a breather, but he knows that he can't. So he shoulders on.

He closes his eyes for just one second, but when he feels his foot dip _down_ and then his whole body is lurching forward. The ground rushes towards him, but he falls through and watches it rise above him.

Grif barely has any time to comprehend just how the _fuck_ that happened when he lands solidly on his back, staring up at three identical figures in blue and white armor.

From behind them, he can see the enraged form of Atlus and the two more submissive, but still angered, forms of Kalirama and Burnstorm.

_Fuck._

The three figures, which he assumed were AI's as well, projected their forms into a slight hover. They circled around him as he sat up slightly, palms flat against the ground. He didn't say anything as they did so because he didn't think there was anything for him to _say._

He fucked up. The Reds and Blues fucked up. They tried changing the past, and because collectively they didn't have enough brain cells to form a functioning human they didn't realize how fucking stupid they were for trying to do so.

It took a traitorous AI with God complex to make _him_ realize that.

Usually, he was better than this, better at pointing out the flaws in their plans, pointing out how ridiculous they were. But this time he didn't, he just went along with the crowd. What difference would his vote have made, when Tucker and Carolina were dead set on doing what they wanted anyway.

He should have listened to Huggins, he knew that then. And she as hell knows that now.

"This is him," the middle figure sung. "The one who Tried."

The two on the side whispered in a melody all to their own, "He Tried to stop the Reds and Blues, the dawn lives on because he Tried."

The middle figure got even closer to him, singing, "Your efforts bore another way."

"And now we leave the rest to you," they said to Atlus, summoning a portal and entering through it, going _somewhere._

He can't help but let past a confused, "What the fuck?"

In one great stride, Atlus surged towards him, his large form _towering_ above his, making Grif feel _very much_ like the ant the AI probably thought he was.

"You insolent fool," was the only warning Grif got before the AI _grabbed_ him and lifted him eye level.

"Holy shit," he yelped, grabbing onto the hand to steady himself, as he was raised to a height that made him very uncomfortable. "I thought you were just projections!"

"The mechanisms that make us what we are, are beyond your knowledge," Burnstorm snidely responded, his arms were crossed as his hammer rest upon his back.

"Ok, you know, a big 'fuck you' would have sufficed," Grif gasped out as Atlus tightened his grip.

"Was it you," Kalirama steps forward, her head bowed. "Was it you who did it?"

From where he was being held in Atlus' grasp, Grif craned his neck to look at her asking, "Did what?"

"Did you kill Huggins?" it was said with such a conviction that Grif felt the air in his lungs leave as he felt like he was sucker punched, his eyes flew wide and he knew that he was gaping, mouth closing and opening as he tried to start _some_ sentence.

"Hu- _Huggins is dead?"_ he finally managed to get out.

"Very dead," she nodded his head. "By one of your own we are to presume, killed for the information she carried."

"What- no, that's no," he shook his head in denial. "No, she- she was _alive."_

"And now she's not," Kalirama turned her helmet away from him. "But I can hear the grief in your voice, as muddled as it is by denial, Atlus dear, you may loosen your grasp. He is not guilty."

Grif mentally thanked the AI as the pressure on his chest lessened at the same time that Atlus loosened his grip.

"But the rest of them are," her voice suddenly turned hard. "One of the others must have killed her, it is the only way."

"Wait," Grif panicked. "I was with them the entire time! They couldn't have done it!"

There was only a few seconds of him watching Huggins leave, his back to the rest of the Reds and Blues, but they couldn't have killed her in that short of a time period- it just wasn't possible.

His heart hurts just having to think about it.

"All of them were accounted for?" Kalirama clenched her fists. "What of the Freelancer, the one who left Starseeds alone? Were you with _him_ the entire time?"

Grif didn't respond. He knew she had a point, and he hated that she did.

"Enough of this," Atlus growled out. "You Dexter Grif may not be guilty of the murder of Huggins, but you have committed transgressions upon time."

The AI sighed before glancing towards where those three women had left.

"But the Fates had seen your attempt, and according to them, that's all they need to know that you Tried," Grif could hear the eye roll at that statement. "So you have been granted immunity from your proper punishment."

It didn't make him feel any better. He wouldn't have even figured it out if he hadn't been lured into that monologue trap that Genkins had set up.

At the reminder of the traitor AI he looked down to see the smaller Cosmic Power, but found him to be _conveniently missing._

And that observation led to the realization that the Cosmic Powers _didn't know._

That realization led to the thought that he might know just _who killed Huggins._

And that led to _anger._

"Hey Atlus," he bit out. "Your asshole son? Genkins? He's a fucking trai-"

"A 'traitor'? Yes we know," Kalirama dismissed. "He's said as much to us multiple times."

Blinking rapidly he feels his head start to pound a little bit from the anger. "And you're not going to do anything about it?"

"No," Atlus shut down. "He's just going through that phase that all children go through, he'll grow out of it."

If Grif could roll his eyes to the back of his head, he would. For now, he had to settle with asking incredulously, "How the fuck is he going to do that if he's an _AI?"_

"He'll manage," Atlus dismissed once more. "No more talking, Burnstorm bring in the Reds and the Blues."

"Of course," pulling off his hammer, he swung it down in an arc, causing a portal to appear from which the rest of the Reds and Blues stumbled out, shouting cries of surprise. A single bullet sounded out as they came through, lodging itself in the ceiling of the throne room rather than the body of a Blue SIM Trooper.

"What the fuck," Tucker asked, springing up from off the floor. "Where- _NO!"_

"Tucker don't," Simmons reached out to stop him from charging at the Cosmic Powers, letting go when he noticed Grif still within Atlus' hand. "Grif!"

"Grif," Tucker questioned, momentarily derailed from his anger, looking up in the same way that Simmons did. "Holy fuck! Hey asshole, let him go!"

"You mortals are in no position to make any sort of demands," Kalirama hissed. "Your list of crimes knows no bounds- liars, and idiots the lot of you."

"Tucker, stand down," Carolina ordered. She rose out of her position on the floor, and stood back straight and head up. "What _right_ did you have to stop us from making _one small change?"_

"Plenty right," Atlus tilted his head towards Grif. "Perhaps the one who _Tried_ could explain it to you all."

Now all eyes were on Grif, great. Just fucking great.

He planned on snidely telling the AI off, but he felt his fingers flex in a simple warning, and decided to just comply for right now, "If you stopped Wash from getting shot, both he and Locus could have helped us stop Temple much sooner. And the time machine wouldn't have been turned on, which wouldn't have caused Donut to get zapped and us to get the guns, so on and so forth..." he trailed off.

"Although, it would have made more sense to say, that if you stopped Wash from getting shot there would have been no reason to go back in time to stop him from getting shot, but you know," he tacked on just to be petty.

"And there you have it," Atlus said. "None of you had a moment of realization at the last possible second like your friend here, and as such, your crimes are validated."

"It is within our grasp and our power to punish you," Burnstorm stepped up menacingly brandishing his hammer. "But not all of you. Only one of you will bear a fitting punishment, whatever it shall be."

They kept alluding to punishment, but they never elaborated on _what type_ of punishment they would execute. That put Grif on edge, it made him nervous and it made him look down at the other Reds and Blues from where they were situated below.

Sure they may be idiots, but they meant well. They didn't go out with the intention of fucking up the time stream. Or releasing Chrovos or whatever the fuck it was that concerned the Cosmic Powers so much.

No, they just wanted to save their friend, and he knew that they'd go to whatever lengths to do so. They'd do it for Church and they'd do it for Wash.

He-

He didn't think they'd do it for him, however.

Grif only starts listening back in on the conversation when he hears Atlus say, "Lavernius Tucker you shall represent the Reds and Blues to take their punishments as your own. The rest shall be banished from Starseeds, to never set foot here again."

Cries of protests sound below and Tucker's reaching for his sword in a show of bravado, but Grif _knows_ that he's using it as a safety blanket, a way to give himself some control over the situation.

Grif doubts there's anything they can do to stop the Cosmic Powers from doing whatever the fuck they wanted, their lives are in their hands.

In Grif's case, that's a tad bit more literal.

"This is bullshit!" Tucker yells out brandishing his sword. "We didn't do anything wrong!"

"But you almost did!" Kalirama extends her own energy sword, it's form green and black from corruption. "You almost undermined our entire purpose for existing, and that is a crime punishable by death if we so pleased!"

Grif would like to think that the Cosmic Powers wouldn't kill Tucker, he'd really like to hope so.

But Huggins was dead. And they really fucked up with trying to save Wash.

AI's were fickle and they took shit personally, especially when something threatens their reason for living.

But the Reds and Blues were his friends first and foremost. And he wasn't going to leave them hanging, not again. He wouldn't even leave Tucker behind no matter what type of bullshit he pulls.

"Take me instead," he whispers.

Nobody hears him above all the roars and yelling from both the Reds and Blues and the other Cosmic Powers. He sees Atlus tilt his head slightly towards his direction, but nothing to indicate that he heard what he said.

Now that he had Atlus' attention, he said louder and clearer, "Take me instead. Look, shouldn't it be a crime to have tried and _failed,_ than to not know what you were doing?"

Looking towards Grif, shifting his hand more in front of his helmet, asking, "What do you propose?"

"Look," Grif gestured at the arguing groups. "Tucker's not gonna go easily, the others aren't gonna let him go easily either. I'm willingly taking his place, and even you think I should be punished."

"True," Atlus nodded his head. "The Fates may not be happy as to this decision of yours."

"Yeah well, if they can see into the future they should have seen this coming," Grif looked down briefly, before looking back up at Atlus.

He didn't want to look down, not even when Atlus announced, "It has been decided."

All quarreling ended and the Reds and Blues looked up at Atlus.

"Lavernius Tucker, it has been agreed that you will no longer be the Bearer of Punishment for your miscreant group of mortals," Atlus waved off Kalirama who turned in anger at her husband.

"No, no way," Tucker clenched his fists, tightening his hold on his energy sword. "There's gotta be a catch, no way you're just letting us off scott free."

"You're no longer the one to take all punishments because he's going to," he gestured his fist, causing Grif to try and stabilize himself at the sudden change in height, movement, and _fucking everything._

"What!" Simmons was the first to protest. "You can't do that!"

"It has already been decided, and now it is time that you all best be going," Atlus waved his free hand, causing a portal to surge and surround the Reds and Blues, stopping Tucker from launching himself at Atlus, sword aimed and ready to fruitlessly attack the AI.

So then it was just Grif, in the hands of an AI who was about to punish him with something, and two other AI's equally as ready to punish _someone._

But he'd chosen it for himself.

"So uh," he started awkwardly. "You going to let me down now? And by that, I'm not asking you to _drop_ me since I'm pretty sure from this height that'd kill me, but if you'd, I dunno, let me down gently that'd be great and then we could get onto this whole punishment thing."

Atlus didn't say anything in response but he did lower Grif to the ground, dropping him when he was merely a few feet away from it. Grif stumbled as he was settled down, but he stood tall as he looked at the Cosmic Powers.

"Dear," Kalirama sounded subdued as if all the fight had left her at the reduced audience. "Perhaps a light sentence, for him. He cared about our dear Huggins, and even if misguided, he cared enough about his comrades to take their punishment upon himself despite immunity."

Burnstorm also seemed to have calmed down somewhat, relaxing his grip upon his hammer, "She speaks the truth, out of them all he seems to be the most commendable."

"What do you both propose in terms of punishment then," Atlus turned to look at them. "We must still represent a punitive counsel."

Grif was expecting them to go back and forth on the matter when a new voice broke through the throne room, "Perhaps I could be of assistance?"

His fists clenched at the sound of that assholes voice, and he physically held himself back. Grif didn't want to ruin his chances of getting a light punishment by turning around and decking that smug bastard in his face.

But the temptation was there as Genkins strutted forward and past him to stop in front of Atlus.

"What now, son?" Atlus growled, raising a hand to his helmet in annoyance.

Genkins chuckled, tossing a quick look over his shoulder at Grif, before turning back to say, "I just thought of a magnificent idea of what you can do to punish our dearest Grif!"

Atlus moved to dismiss him, but Kalirama raised a hand, "Let's at least hear him out."

Groaning, Atlus looked at the smaller AI. "Go ahead then."

"Why don't you just gift him to me!" Genkins spread his hands wide. "You're always talking about how much I need to be watched _at all times,_ and I just _know_ I could use a caddie to carry all my clubs around!"

_What._

"Plus," he chirped glancing back at Grif again. "I just _know_ how much he'll absolutely _hate it."_

Atlus and Kalirama looked at each other for a brief moment, before looking back down at their son and then at Grif.

"It wouldn't be too much of a punishment," Kalirama mused. "Plus it'd work much more in our benefit to have someone watching him, curbing his attempts at betraying us again, rather than just locking the mortal in one of our many dungeons."

"You may have a point," Atlus sighed, before looking at Grif.

Grif had many, _many_ objections to this. The main being that they couldn't just fucking _gift_ him to someone else, and just the fact that they didn't find anything wrong with that made him break out into hives.

And if he _had_ to be gifted to someone, he would rather it be _literally anyone else._ Not that asshole Genkins. Not to the guy, he _knew_ had murdered Huggins.

He found it funny that for as much as Kalirama was hung up on her death, she didn't care to see the killer in front of her. Even knew that her own son would betray them at the drop of a hat, but wouldn't do anything about it.

He should have yelled out in protest. But he didn't.

Partly because he _had_ agreed to accept any punishment in Tucker's place.

Partly because he wanted to know what game Genkins was trying to play.

"Then it is decided," Atlus moved back towards his throne, settling himself down upon it, back straight. "I condemn you, one Dexter Grif, to indefinite servitude to my son, Genkins of the Cosmic Powers."

"Oh, this is going to be so exciting!" Genkins clapped his hands before whirling towards Grif. "Did you hear that buddy? You're with me until the Boss says you've done enough."

Grif clenched his mouth shut and his fists closed, willing himself to not _react_ to fucking anything the smallest Cosmic Power was doing.

It took all of his willpower to not shoot the AI when he pulled Grif in close to rest his arm across his shoulders.

The smirk was palpable as Genkins whispered conspiratorially, "I'm sure to you this punishment will go by in a _flash."_

"Genkins, leave and do as you please to the prisoner," Atlus waved him away, resting his head in his hand.

Genkins hauled Grif out of the throne room and down one of the spacious corridors, before whirling around and pushing against him.

Grif glared at the asshole, and prepared to give him a piece of his mind when Genkins hissed, "I blame _you."_

"What the hell are you blaming me for," Grif growled back.

"You've ruined _everything!_ All my plans, my chances of becoming a _real god!_ Now I'm back to square one, back to being watched like some fledgling AI," Genkins stomped his foot, letting the armored boot hit the metal and the clang reverberates around the empty corridor. "It's not _fair."_

"No," Grif snapped. "Yeah, I guess to you that's not fair. But you wanna know what's really unfair? The fact that you fucking decided to call dibs on a person, the fact that because of your actions of trying to fuck up time not only led to _all of this_ but also to Huggins death."

"Oh figured that out did you," Genkins threw his hands up in the air. "Big deal. What are you gonna do? Tell _mommy_ and _daddy_ about what I did? They'll never listen to a mortal- they don't even listen to me and I'm _one of them."_

"So you just decided to be an asshole and act out? Yeah sounds like a really good plan, ruin everyone else's lives while you're at it," Grif rolled his eyes.

Genkins clenched his fist, before relaxing his grip, "Oh fun fact dearest _servant._ Did you know this is where I killed your little friend Huggins? Oh, you should have heard her _scream_ as she got pulled into that _black hole."_

"You little shit," he growled and he attempted to surge forward and _grab that bastard._

He was stopped in his place when Genkins _himself_ surged forward and grasped tightly against the back of his neck, and Grif shivered as he felt something _click_ within his head.

"You forget," Genkins whispered. "That I'm an _AI._ I have all the capabilities of one and a few _extra_ skills. And those pretty little neural links that Freelancer hooked you up with? Oh how easily they can interface with just about _anything."_

Grif tried to flex his hands, tried to move a finger slightly, but it felt like his whole body was being physically held back some invisible force.

"See how easy it is to just _stop_ all your motor functions?" Genkins craned his head to look at Grif. "Oh! And watch this," Grif felt some small pain blossom and spike in his head, making him feel dizzy and uncertain. "Do you feel that just now? Wanna know what that was?"

Genkins didn't wait for the response that he _wasn't_ going to get, saying, "I've taken away your ability to speak certain things! And by that, I mean _most things."_

Stepping back, Grif felt the link disconnect and he swayed slightly, his knees weak, as he gained control of his body. Immediately his hands went towards his helmet, and he opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He thought of every possible thing to say, every combination of words, or swears, or phrases and colloquialisms. He tried to speak in a different language- in Spanish and in Hawaiian.

Nothing would come out.

"See look, now I can tell you _all_ my problems and all you can do is _listen._ No more interrupting, and no more nagging," turning away from Grif he continued to walk down the corridor.

Removing his hands from his helmet, he clenched his fists instead and stalked after the smaller Cosmic Power.

"If I have to be stuck with _you_ I'm going to make sure you'll be _fun_ to be around. Maybe change that repulsive shade of orange you're wearing and make it a much more _elegant_ shade of green," Genkins walked towards one of the balconies that showed the galaxy around Starseeds.

As much as Grif would just love to kill that asshole, maybe push him off the balcony for the fun of it, his current inability to speak made him compliant. That asshole _did_ something to him, and he'd be damned if he didn't get the AI to fix it before he did anything drastic.

"Kneel," Genkins stated, and Grif felt his knees collapse underneath him, going down with a thud, placing his hands in front of him.

But he refused to bow down his head to Genkins. He felt the strain against his neck, but he forced it up to look at the AI.

"Welcome to hell, Grif," Genkins cheered, turning to towards the throne room again, muttering, "Now you'll know exactly how I feel every day, but I'm going to make it so much worse."

**Author's Note:**

> I really love Genkins as a character and I love writing him even more. This is the first time I've written him from this perspective and personality and I'm actually really digging it. This kinda goes in line with the last one where I kinda wanted to see a universe where the Cosmic Powers actually tried to _do_ something to stop the Reds and Blues.
> 
> My Tumblrs are: @agent-murica (main and where I'm accepting prompts) and @amateurscribes (writing).


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